Nota Bene Music Studio

It can seem counter-intuitive to delay note-reading in music lessons. For years I was convinced it was a sign of insufficient academic rigour, and moreover I have a special affection for notation and didn’t want to consider delaying!

What I didn’t know, what Edwin E. Gordon discovered through his scientific research into how we learn music, is that training the brain to look for visual cues first can impede the brain’s ability to draw basic aural connections.

Have you ever noticed that beginning pianists very, very often have irregular rhythm? I started my piano teaching journey twenty-five years ago and I was surprised by how often students would treat bar lines like mini stop signs, pausing before continuing to the next bar.

Why does this happen?

Well, it makes complete sense that it would happen if notation is the hook upon which we hang our musical hat. The bar line is, visually, an obstacle and division. It does not express flow or movement.

On the contrary, if we approach music first aurally, we learn that music has phrases, movement, and direction. We learn that it moves in two or in three, in divisions or elongations, and sometimes in combinations of all those characteristics. If we notice such things first, and *then* we look at musical notation, instead of mini stop signs, we will see groupings of notes according the metre.

Students who have been trained to move to the music, feel the beat in their bodies, and understand aurally before symbolically are typically at an advantage. Yes, a student can be trained to read and perform musical phrasing even with a reading-first approach, but learning to read notation well is typically easier and more intuitive for those who already know what it is supposed to represent.

There are so many reasons to delay note-reading (it allows the student to focus on developing good technique! it encourages the student to think about melodic and harmonic patterns!) but the ability to maintain a steady, flowing beat is one of the most readily apparent ones!

What do you think?

🤣 When I was younger, I dreamed of becoming a conductor…

https://www.facebook.com/100064680457342/posts/927150276117646/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

Nadia Boulanger, when asked about being the first woman to conduct the Boston Symphony:
"I've been a woman for a little over 50 years and have gotten over my initial astonishment. As for conducting an orchestra, that's a job where I don't think s*x plays much part."